March Break at Disney World - Day 3 Hollywood Studios

Day Three and it was off to Hollywood Studios!  We woke up early to make sure that we were there for the rope drop - again!  There is such a difference between getting to a Disney Park at the very very start versus even half an hour late!  There were more attractions at this park that the kids were a little intimidated by, so it took until near the end of the day for anyone to try the Tower of Terror (which Daddy and Kaleb did and it became Kaleb's FAVORITE ride) and no one went on the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.

We started the day off with Toy Story Mania - which the kids LOVED!!!  It was another ride that I just sat in the shade and waited for them to come through the exit, but I'm glad that they had a blast with it - best ride in the park - according to them!  The older two went on the Star Tours ride with Daddy while Navia and I sat and she have fun just watching people and eating her way too big sucker :)

I just love her ears - so very cute on her!!!

We went to the Muppet*Vision 3D show and when we came out of it we saw a small line for autographs for Phineas and Ferb - a Disney show that they enjoy watching.  The little platypus in the upper corner is the stuffie that Kaleb purchased on his first day at Disney - Perry the Platypus a.k.a. Agent P.

Each of the kids decided to collect various things while we were at Disney and for Emma it was pins.  She bought a starter pin set with a lanyard and couldn't wait to get started.  I just happened to catch her as she was doing her first pin trade with a Disney cast member.  She got to be pretty good at it and had fun finding as many Pluto ones as she could.

 Kids with Winnie the Pooh

 Braden and the kids going back to Toy Mania to ride again.

 Gotta love the Green Army Man with the kids!!!

Another afternoon parade but this one started with an in a street choreographed dance for everyone to join in.  The girls had a blast with it and even Daddy got into it (for a small bit).  Kaleb, well, he'd rather sit and eat his snack on the sidewalk and watch the girls dance!

We had a few minutes to 'waste' as we were waiting for the next show to start so we did a quick turn in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground - which the kids had fun in.  I remembered doing this 20 years ago when I went there as a kid (hmmm - did I just date myself - yikes!!!)

We then went to the 'Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show' which was mesmerizing for all of us.  I think Daddy really liked this one as cars were chasing each other, jumping, men were falling off of buildings, being set on fire, and well - it was just really good!

We also went to a couple other shows - 'Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage', which was incredibly well done and 'Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!' which the kids thought was fun with explosions, stunts and even an old war time plane!

One of the coolest things that I thought happened near the end of the day though.  We had signed up the kids to participate in Star Wars Padewan Training.  They were dressed in Jedi robes and then trained by a Jedi Master on how to use their lightsabers.  After their training suddenly Darth Vader came in and challenged the new Padewans.  Each child was given the opportunity to take on Darth Vader and they each did really well.  Kaleb had a look of determination on his face that would have scared me, Emma, well, she was really good, and Navia, she was scared of the big faceless man in front of her.  The Jedi Master stood low beside her and told her that they would fight him together and Navia straightened up and started using her lightsaber like a pro.  Darth Vader had not idea what hit him - hehehe!

At the end of the day we went to 'Fantasmic!' - a show with fireworks, live actors, water effects, fire, music, boats, rafts, and projections onto water mist screens.  It was pretty cool seeing all the different things happening at the same time.  We found that if we used glow-sticks it kept the kids busy for the wait until the show and using ear plugs made Navia love the show so much more than without them.  

It was a great day, although a very, very, late one!!!  As we were walking towards the gate to exit the park we decided that the next day would be great for a day off - swimming in the morning, afternoon and even evening if we could!!!  So far we all had been LOVING DisneyWorld and everything that is in it.  

Bailey Jedi's in Motion . . .

Just thot I'd post a quik video of the kids vs daddy. Enjoy!

Kaleb's 6th Birthday Party - Clone Wars

This is the invitation that Braden made for Kaleb's Party - yep it's pretty good!!!

Kaleb has really gotten into Star Wars Clone Wars in the last little bit. He has the Wii game of Lego Star Wars and has gotten various Clone Wars characters, Clone Mask, Lightsaber and some other of their "stuff". He decided that this year he didn't want just a regular birthday party, but a Clone Wars one . . . so suddenly I'm off trying to figure out what to do.

We decided that the party will be a Jedi Training Academy Party (like I've seen some parents do online) and hopefully with Master Jedi Braden in charge it will cut down on the Light Saber duels. They will be learning various Jedi "skills" and once they have been able to master them they will turn from Padawans to real Jedi's.

I also found free posters to download at the www.starwars.com site. This is an example of one of them. I'm getting Braden to print a couple of these up in a larger format to put around the food table.

I came across some really great sites - Tip Junkie especially - this one had a Star Wars bingo game on it. I took this idea and went a bit further with it to create a Clone Wars specific bingo game, with 12 different cards and a "key" to all the characters. I think I will be playing this at the party and also sending home 4 cards and a key with each child so that they can play it at home as well. I'm "enclosing" a pdf of what I did in case you would like to use it with your own kids sometime.

Clone Wars Bingo 12 Cards and Key

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

On the Tip Junkie site it showed how the mom had made outfits for each of the boys. So I, of course, had to run out to Fabricland and I was pretty happy when I found that there was a HUGE sale on felt. I bought enough to make 11 jackets for the boys (tied with robe around the waist0 and then I have another brown material that I will be making a jedi robe for Kaleb and for "Jedi Master Braden" to wear as well - I know he'll just love it!!! Tee hee!

Are you scared?

So - the party is now officially over and a huge *sigh* of relief - over and successful!!! Yay! Out of the 11 boys only 6 were able to make it, which actually made it easier and way more manageable. They all got along really well and I didn't have to worry about fights or anything - another huge YAY!

When the doorbell rang Braden would great each guest, along with Kaleb, in their matching Jedi robes and Kaleb would escort them over to myself and they would put on their own Jedi tunic. Then I had the Star Wars Ship along with characters ready to play with, Episode 1 of Clone Wars on and coloring pages of Clone Wars for them to color. This was to keep them all busy until all the boys came.

Once they were all here I sat them in the kitchen and showed them a picture of the Star Wars Galaxy and all the numerous planets that the Jedi need to defend. I then gave them each small styrofoam balls so that they could create their own planet with paint and special "gems" that they would be entrusted to protect as Jedi Knights.

After that it was downstairs for the Jedi Academy Obstacle Course. They needed to show their agility (jumping, climbing, crawling, running) and how they could pay attention to all details by searching for hidden "planets" (marbles) in another galaxy (a box of legos). Once they completed that they proved that they were worthy of being a Jedi Knight and each received their very own Light Saber. Their first task was to learn how to keep a balloon from touching the ground with only their Saber - yep - it was crazy and the kids had a blast!

Now, a room full of boys (and 2 sisters) with Light Sabers could be very dangerous so the next part of their training was learning that Jedi's DO NOT ATTACK people with their Sabers - it will not touch another person - ever!!! They did pretty well at it too. Master Jedi Daddy then showed them a bunch of choreographed moves (left shoulder, right shoulder, left shoulder duck - left leg, right leg, jump) Once they mastered them they each had a turn to training one-on-one with the Master - and Braden didn't even get the bruises that he was anticipating!

Then it was upstairs to have Yoda Soda (ice cream and Ginger Ale drinks), Darth Malts (ice cream and pink Fresca) along with Blue Light Sabers (straight pretzels dipped in blue chocolate - yum!!!), Separatist Chips (ketchup chips), and of course - CAKE! I made the cake last night and decided to make it simpler - just a brown planet with hills and bumps that the Star Wars characters could stand on.

After cake we opened presents.

Then we Destroyed the Death Star Pinata. It was the easiest pinata I've ever done. I found a soccer ball one at a party store on clearance - took off the black crepe-paper and then painted the entire thing grey. I then took a black sharpie and drew a straight line around the middle. Then with a lighter grey I made a few dots and lines and ta-da - Death Star! Oh, and for the dent in it I just cut a circle for the goodies and when I replaced it I just put in in concave - "easy-peasy" (as Emma would say).

Then we had more time to practice with our Light Sabers and receive our Certificates of Jedi Training. After that we did a bit more "Saber-ing" and playing with the toys and then the doorbell started ringing!

It was done - each child gathered their loot bags, certificates, planet and Light Saber and they were off. Now it's just us here - procrastinating from cleaning and blogging instead - hee hee!

So - Kaleb had an awesome time, and it seemed the the kids did too. And this was the last of the birthday parties in our house until December - YAY!!! Now just to do Kaleb's actual birthday tomorrow and we're done!